William Demmert Jr. Retires as Professor of Western Washington University

Left to Right at retirement reception are David Beaulieu William Demmert Jr and Jim Kohlmoos. Beaulieu traveled from Phoenix Arizona and Jim Kohlmoos traveled from Washington DC to Bellingham Washington to attend the reception. Dr. Demmert worked both Beaulieu and Kohlmoos on implementation of the Clinton Executive Order

Left to Right at dinner to honor William Demmert Jr were out of town guests Jim Kohlmoos, Robert Blum, David Beaulieu, Bill and Nora Demmert and Mrs Lee Demmert and Lee Demmert

William G. Demmert, Jr., (Ed.D., Harvard Graduate School of Education, 1973) has retired as of June 6 2008 as a professor of education at Western Washington University. Professor Demmert is one of the original founders of the National Indian Education Association (the idea was conceived at the First Convocation of American Indian Scholars, Princeton University, in March 1969). As a member of the first Board of Directors he designed the current NIEA logo and pin on his way from a meeting in DC to Boston while attending Harvard University.

Dr. Demmert worked on the original Indian Education Act (P.L. 92-318) while a student at Harvard; worked on the legislation reorganizing the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Indian Education (including direct funding of schools, local hiring of faculty, and the formula that is still used for allocating funds); and was instrumental adding a Native language priority to Title III (during the time it was known as the Bilingual Education Act), commonly known as the Puerto Rican Provision (he worked closely with Pila Wilson and Bob Arnold).

He was the first U.S. Deputy Commissioner of Education for the U.S. Office of Indian Education, in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; Served as the Director of Education for the Bureau of Indian Affairs; held the position of Commissioner of Education for the State of Alaska

His career has seen many roles where he has served as a chair of a panel or task force charged to consider new policy related to Native American education. He chaired along with Oregon Governor Victor Atiyeh the Indian Education Project Task of the Education Commission of the States that looked into state involvement in American Indian and Alaska Native education and he chaired along with former Secretary of Education Terrell Bell, The Indian Nations at Risk Task Force (Bell had chaired the panel that authored the now famous A Nation at Risk Report) and served as the primary writer of the Indian Nations at Risk Report published in October of 1991 by the US Department of Education.

Professor Demmert served President Clinton’s education transition team (helping set the tone for Indian education during the Clinton administration and served as a member of the Independent Review Panel created by the U.S. Congress to undertake a national assessment of Title I, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Amendments (ESEA), and other federal programs in the U.S. Department of Education, 1995-2001. During the Clinton administration he worked with David Beaulieu, Director of the Office of Indian Education (OIE) on the Reauthorization of the Improving Americas School Act provisions related to Native American Education and the implementation of President’s Clinton’s executive order particularly the research agenda through convening outside experts and representatives of the National Indian School Boards Association (NISBA) The National Advisory Council on Indian Education (NACIE) The National Indian Education Association (NIEA), The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) and The National Congress of American Indian (NCAI).

In 2005 Dr. Demmert was honored to receive the Life Time Achievement Award by the National Indian Education Association for his life time work to advance the education of American Indian Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians.

Dr. Demmert’s international activity is extensive and includes serving as a co-chair of a coalition of the Ministers of Education in northern nations and has helped plan and implement a series of education seminars in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Greenland, Russian Federation, Alaska, Nunavut Territory, Northern Quebec, and the Yukon Territory in Canada. These seminars focus on ways to improve educational opportunities for indigenous students in the far north. Professor Demmert also works with a number of Native American schools, organizations, and tribes on ways to improve schools and schooling for Native American students. Most recently Dr. Demmert has worked with the Ministry of Education in Greenland as an advisor and overseer of their school reform effort in elementary and secondary education, as well as in restructuring their university system.

He has been most recently involved with a partnership of researchers, Native language immersion schools and culturally based education programs to understand the relationship of culturally based education to the academic achievement of Native American students.